Do Americans not want to work or do they want to work but get paid a better wage

[Hvizsgyak]

Congress Is Paying People a Lot of Money To Not Work – Reason.com

I hear it all the time from co-workers, "people are getting paid to stay home and not work. Why would anybody work at a low paying job and put in the number of hours they do or do as much work as they are required to do?" These people from work make it sound like the unemployed should get off their lazy butts, stop taking money from the government (which we give them through our tax dollars) and get a job. No problem, right? Especially with all the job openings in the economy.

I disagree with my co-workers. It's about time low wage workers STRIKE for better wages and better benefits. The article above though talks about the small businesses being unable to attract workers (that they desperately need) because the government is giving unemployed workers the incentive to stay home through the Federal CARES Act and that is understandable but these bigger companies need to step up and start paying their low wage workers better. The same is happening at the big companies too. They can't get enough people to cover the workloads and it falling on the other workers to cover the work (at low wages).

McDonalds, Chipotle, Target, Wal-Mart(?) and Universal Studios Theme Parks took the big leap and raised the wages of their workers. Now its time for the rest of these big companies to follow suit. Its despicable how some of these companies get away with cheating their new workers out of an honest wage. Alot of companies hire workers part-time so they don't have to provide healthcare insurance, retirement plans and paid sick leave and then they work these workers for 39 hours a week like pack mules for a couple of years or more (at one large organization, they can keep a person in a part time position for close to 10 years; that's ten years of no health insurance and ten years of no retirement savings).

 

[iluvatar5150]

Money is certainly part of it, but there are other elements of status, professionalism, and respect that are attached to “fancier” jobs but not these service sector positions. A lot of people work a lot of hours at jobs that don’t pay much but still have some sort of status attached. If you pay people little and treat them like they’re expendable cogs in a machine that doesn’t do anything worthwhile, then you shouldn’t be surprised when they don’t want to come back.

 

[Sabertooth]

Do Americans not want to work or do they want to work but get paid a better wage?

Bang The Drum All Day, Todd Rundgren (1983)

 

[hedrick]

Here’s an article giving Best Buy’s CEO view. Best Buy CEO: These 4 challenges are why it's hard to hire workers right now - CNN there are still pandemic related issues. Also, it’s hard to recruit millions of new workers at once, no matter what. Let’s come back in three to six months before we talk about permanent changes in what workers will do.

 

[Crwth]

I'm sorry - but this is a 'hot button' issue with me. Finding decent workers these days is immensely difficult and has been worsening for well over a decade now. It is truly shocking to see the attitudes and expectations of people entering the workforce today.

I saw this video awhile back - it's meant to be funny, but there is so much truth in it that it's almost scary.

People can cry about "low wages" all they want - I get that there are some companies that do take advantage of their employees - but ours is a system where such abuses do not last for long. By and large, wages are a natural function of the economy, supply and demand. And just because we are talking about people does NOT justify some arbitrary "living wage" be paid them because they have feelings, breathe, walk upright, and know how to use SIRI.

 

[Chrystal-J]

I only get my mail once a week because the postal workers don't want to come off of unemployment.

 

[hedrick]

I only get my mail once a week because the postal workers don't want to come off of unemployment.

You seem to live in Michigan. Extended benefits ended April 17. However there are other programs, so it’s a bit hard to say the effect on people. The work search requirements were reinstated May 30. It will be interesting to see if that fixes your problem. Unemployment claims are falling fairly rapidly, so it’s not clear that unemployment compensation is the issue. US workers file 406,000 new jobless claims as economy heats up Personally I think a lot of the competition for workers is just because so many companies are trying to hire at the same time.

 

[Hvizsgyak]

Workers are 'rage quitting' their jobs as a tightening labor market forces employers to take note of unfavorable conditions and low pay (msn.com)

There it is folks - the Great American Low Wage Worker Strike of 2021. Its time for the big businesses in the country to start paying their workers a much better wage. Sorry I forgot to add this too: more importantly better working conditions and better benefits.

37 years ago when I started working professionally (I actually started working at age 14 for the local Golf Course Country Club), I imagined going to work and doing my part with a group of other workers and a supervisor who oversaw our needs to get the job done. We all worked together harmoniously. We knew each other, we talk, laughed and joked while we worked and at the end of the work day we felt fulfilled that we did an honest days work.

Every job I've had after my Country Club job has been very NOT like that. Some co-workers are extremely mean to one another, some stab you in the back, the supervisor breaths down your neck to make sure your giving every single second to the company, the supervisor doesn't give the worker the tools needed to get his/her job done, long 9-10 hour days for 8 hours of pay, and no fulfillment, no praise by the boss. 37 years of that junk (3 different companies).

The funny thing of it is, every job alot of my friends and fellow co-workers saw and felt the same abuse. Each year we would hope things would get better. No, they never did. So I am ecstatic that this spring awakening is taking place. Of course, I don't have alot of hope in it though. The people at the top always have a way to get back at the hard workers at the bottom. I remember something President Obama said and I highly agree with him on this and that's that the worker needs a bill of rights too. Will it happen finally?

 

[JimR-OCDS]

I talked with the owner of a restaurant that my wife and myself eat at often.

I said, "gee starting tomorrow, you can open fully."

He said, "yeah but we can't get help to be able to open." He said people are not applying for the jobs because they're getting unemployment and stimulus checks that makes it worth staying home.

BTW, they do pay well as I know the waitresses who are currently working there, and they do well on tips and salary.

 

[DragonFox91]

There was a minimum wage protest not too long ago in my town. The organizers had been at McDonald's 20 years & were still making just above minimum.

The problem is many of these these kinds of people have no concept of climbing the ladder, transferrable skills, & ambition. If you want to be a burger flipper for 20 years, you're gonna be making burger flipper pay.